Happy Birthday Katie B!!

Yesterday, Katie celebrated her 5th birthday. Time sure flies! I can't believe she is already 5 years old! To start her birthday off, we sent cupcakes to school for both K4 classes to celebrate her birthday with her. I was going to make them but Brittanie said she would make them for me if I invited Hank, the guy she has been seeing, to celebrate with us. Deal! They came out great!Last night, I made lasagna and garlic bread because Katie loves lasagna. She was too excited to even eat it! She was so happy and hyper that she could barely open her gifts! Tom had to calm her down so she could open the gifts. Katie has been begging for a Gameboy since I got Taylor and Lyndsie a Gameboy and got Brittanie a Nintendo DS for Christmas. So we bought her the 5-year-old version of a Gameboy....the Leapster L-Max. We also bought the recharging system and a Disney Cars game to go with it. The L-Max is like the Leapster but better because you can also hook the L-Max to the TV. Well she was in heaven last night. The L-Max was glued to her hands till she went to bed. She blew out the candles on her cake and then ran back to the L-Max. The picture shows her excitement.We didn't have a big party for her this year. It was just the little celebration at the house last night with the 4 of us and Hank. But she still had a great birthday. Her teacher made her feel special....as did her wonderful K3 teacher. Tammie sent her the baby pony and some little ponies. Jonathan (my wonderful godson) and Sarah (his wife) sent her a very soft Winnie the Pooh all the way from Germany! Brittanie thought the packing was cool. It was vacuum packed. Katie loved Pooh because it was so soft and she loves soft things.

But the best is yet to come! Tom's parents are coming down Saturday and taking her to Chuck E. Cheese's and then to Toys R Us to pick out a toy that she wants. Grandma and Grandpa have become synonymous with Chuck E. Cheese. That's going to be a great memory she has of them when she gets older because we don't take her there. That's a special thing she does with them and she LOVES it!!

She was just adorable playing that L-Max last night. She would run into the living room and tell us how great she is doing with the game and literally squeal with delight as she was telling what she was doing in the game. It is a great learning tool. Katie has always loved to learn and this is just going to encourage that. It has phonics and greater than/less than on the Cars game. Plus there are 3 games built into the game console itself that are educational. This was the best toy we ever bought her!

By the way, the L-Max told her to put her name in the console and brought up the alphabet for her to use the pen to type it in. She typed "K T B" I loved that! That's what we call her....Katie B. But I like her spelling of it. Too cute!

Katie's costume

Brittanie decided to try Katie's Halloween costume on her today. Katie is going as Princess Jasmine from Alladin. She was very excited about it....until she tried the costume on. After it was on, she pointed to her bare belly and said "Look at this! I need to wear something over this!" and immediately crossed her arms over her belly. We tried explaining to her that it is supposed to be that way but she was NOT happy at all. I tried getting a picture of her but she kept putting her pony over her belly and when I made her drop the pony, she crossed her arms over her stomach and made a very unhappy face. It was hilarious! She is definitely a very modest child. I told her she can hold the candy bag in front of her belly on Halloween so nobody will see it. Check out this picture.

Say it with me....GATORADE!!

The leg cramps were all over the place tonight in the USC vs Tennessee game. These guys need to drink Gatorade all week and be good and hydrated for the games or they will continue to cramp like this. You can't play this hard and think a couple of Gatorades once the game starts will help. It won't!

Our offensive line stunk it up the first half. They woke up the 2nd half but the damage was done. We lost by 3 in overtime. I don't care how great announcers think Blake Mitchell is or how many good plays he made in this game, he stinks and he shouldn't be in that uniform much less on the field. He is a disgrace to the Gamecocks and always has been since the day he blew into Columbia. He is the overthrow king. But because we came back alive the second half, I'm sure Spurrier is going to start Mitchell next week. I'm ready for the season to be over so we never have to look at Mitchell again. He will be gone and working at Burger King or wherever losers go.I don't agree with Coach Spurrier's decision to swap quarterbacks in and out! Chris Smelley is a MUCH better quarterback than Mitchell ever dreamed of being. The problem in the first half was not because of Smelley. Our offensive line stunk it up. Cory Boyd and McKinley were the only ones, besides Smelley, playing offense in the first half. You can't blame Smelley for that. Smelley is a decent guy and a good player. He deserves to be on the field not riding the pine like Mitchell should be!

She's back on Top!!

Swansea went to the JROTC competition at Airport High today and it was a good day for our cadets. They brought home 4 trophies in rifle team. Brittanie's shooting has been down this year because she doesn't shoot well when she is happy. Go figure! She has to be stressed out to shoot well. Well this week, she has been so worried about if she will get into USC and how her weight is going to affect her ROTC scholarship. All that stress got her shooting up tremendously and she got top shooter over everyone today! She was shooting perfect 10's one after the other after the other!!! 1SG was so happy! He said "Sightler is back!!" lol

Gay day?

When the USC vs Tennessee game first came on, they showed the crowd and the field and with all that orange, it looked like Gay Day in Tennessee! We recognize that here in South Carolina because Clemson has Gay Day everyday!

Raise em right and they want to go to USC LOL

That's Tom's child

Tonight, Katie went upstairs to give Brittanie her cell phone that she had left downstairs because she just missed a call. While up there, she asked Brittanie is she knew was "diligent" meant. Brittanie told her it meant persistent. Katie argued that it meant good. So they both came downstairs so Tom could settle the argument. Well of course Tom said Brittanie was right. So Brittanie starts telling us the story and telling Katie what diligent means with examples. Well Katie is convinced we are all wrong and she is right and she wasn't listening to any of us. She covered her ears and began yelling "BLAH BLAH BLAH 1 2 3 BLAH BLAH BLAH 1 2 3." We couldn't help but laugh at her. She's is definitely unique and so headstrong!

I have said in the past that each night, she has Tom do something different with her that involves him running her through the house. Sometimes he pretends to be a race car or a horse or whatever she chooses. Well the last few nights, she has made him do the same thing each night and if you know Tom, you will know how funny this is. She has Tom sing loudly "OHHHHH WHO LIVES IN A PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA?" And Katie yells "SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!" Tom: "ABSORBENT AND YELLOW AND POROUS IS HE!" Katie: "SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!" Well you get the picture. They do the whole song! It is hilarious! I love watching him play with Katie. He is such a good daddy!

They caught him!

Police have arrested a thug they believe killed our cousin, Jr. I looked at his picture wasn't at all surprised at what I saw. One of Jr.'s friends said "I wish they could bring him by here for about 15 minutes before they take him to jail." I am sure our family members feel the same way. I just hope this scum gets the death penalty. He killed an innocent man...a good man...in cold blood and he deserves to never take another breath ever again.

Click here to read the story on the arrest.

Worried

Brittanie brought home the itinerary for the senior trip and they have changed the trip from New York, which is where they normally go, to New Orleans. I don't remember if I blogged this before or not but if I did, so what. It's my blog and I can be redundant if I want to. lol

I e-mailed Dr. Maddox (the principal) about it and he wanted to talk to me about it and asked when it was a good time to call so he could go over the details of the trip with me. But with all the text message crap from last week, I guess it slipped his mind. I mentioned to him then that CBS did a 48 hours special on how out of control the homicide epidemic is in New Orleans. According to the report, there were 162 homicides last year and only 2 convictions. If criminals get away with crime, they do it more often. Click here for the 48 hours report.

Today, I was looking wafb.com and saw that there were 4 more murders in the French Quarter, which of course you have to visit when you go to New Orleans....it was on the itinerary even. Click here for that report.

I think it would be irresponsible, wreckless, not to mention INSANE to take a group of teenagers down there! No way is my child going on that trip. I e-mailed the newest report link to Dr. Maddox, called Dr. Hawkins, who is the Associate Superintendent for the school district, and asked Brittanie to ask Hank (the guy she has been seeing) to have his mom call me....she is on the school board. I'm not going to stop until the trip venue is changed. Dr. Hawkins told me they allow the schools some flexibility in planning trips and they were apprehensive about the trip as well but were waiting to see what response parents would have to the trip. Well probably most parents just thought, it is $575 and their kid isn't going and let it drop. But I want my child to go on her senior trip. I didn't get to go to mine because it was always a drunken party at the beach in Florida and not only was I not interested in going but my mom wouldn't have even thought about it. I never even asked. But Swansea High School seniors should be able to have a senior trip that doesn't endanger their lives!

So if you are a parent of a senior at Swansea High, call Dr. Maddox (803-568-1100) or Dr. Hawkins (803-568-1000) and let them know what you think about this trip!

The investigation continues.

From talking with family members, I found out that Uncle Jr.'s killer has been ID'ed thanks to a very clear surveillance video and they are looking for him. Here is the article from the Baton Rouge newspaper, The Advocate. Click here.

Katie and her big sister

Katie's 5th birthday is October 30th and my niece, Tammie, sent her a My Little Pony baby and she LOVES it!!! It only leaves her hands to bathe and go to school. She took it to school today for Show and Tell.Today Brittanie had her Army physical and she got out just in time to pick up Katie for me. She decided to make a day of it and took Katie to shop for a Halloween costume (she is going to be Jasmine from Aladdin). She took her walking in the mall and let her ride the carousel in the mall. Then they went to McDonald's for a couple of hours so Katie go eat and then play in the playland. She is staying there till it is time to drop her off at Awana. Brittanie realized the other day when we were talking that Katie will be 10 when she graduates college and goes off to the Army. So she wants to make some good memories so she and Katie can always be close. So she started today by making this "sister day." Katie had a blast!

On a side note, we got Tom's truck back today. I love our mechanic. I called him and told him that I couldn't get the truck till tomorrow because I had no one to go with me up there to get it. He actually delivered it to me. I don't know if I mentioned this before but he is William's uncle. (William is Brittanie's best friend.) I didn't drive it but I was outside when he pulled up in it and it even sounds better. I am just glad it is back home!

Please pray for my family

My mom called me this morning and told me our cousin, Jr., was shot and killed at work in Baton Rouge at 4am this morning. He was a security guard. Please pray for our family. This is my mom's first cousin. They grew up together. His mom was my mom's godmother. So please pray for all of the family as they say goodbye to a good man who became the newest homicide victim by the scum that has infiltrated Baton Rouge. If you want to read the story, you can go to wafb.com.

Check our necks!!!

I couldn't handle not having a TV in the living room. It was just too quiet. Tom told me to turn on the sound and keep the TV off. Ummmm no! After much talking, I finally convinced Tom to bring the 19in TV from our room in the living room. We couldn't figure out what to put it on and then Tom came up with a solution. It took ALOT of begging for him to agree to let me put a picture of it on the blog.
Here is our redneck solution:That's the bench from the piano it is sitting on. Tom said "This significantly ups the redneck quotient in the house. It definitely qualifies us to live in Gaston quite a few more years." LOL

Rest assured, this is ONLY temporary. I ordered a replacement projection lamp from ebay today. Hopefully it will be in before the Gamecock game Saturday!

Brittanie looks more like me but Katie is 50/50

I don't agree with this. To me, Katie looks ALOT like me and Brittanie looks like the Sightlers. What do yall think? Leave me a comment!

By the way, no matter who they look like, they both act like Tom! LOL

This week stinks already!

It is only Tuesday and yet this is turning out to be the worst week in quite awhile. Yesterday Tom's truck started pouring oil out. He managed to drop Katie off at school and then come home. Thankfully, our wonderful cousin/neighbor next door picked up Katie from school for me (and even went the extra mile of taking her to McDonald's and letting her play and then back to their house to play some more....they were definitely my silver lining yesterday and I appreciate it soooooo much!!). But Tom took my van to work. I got his truck towed to the mechanic yesterday afternoon. One other silver lining we are going to have is that Tom will be able to ride to work with one of his coworkers, Kevin. That way Katie doesn't have to stay out of school or Brittanie have to give up her car. Tom doesn't like to drive Brittanie's car because it definitely looks like a teenaged girl's car. lol I did get some typing done because Katie was out of the house for so long. But this morning I got up to do more typing and turned on the TV, I like to have the little bit of background noise, and the projection bulb in our big screen TV went out the minute I turned it on. So I guess today I will be watching TV through the Slingbox.

So we are looking at probably $1000 for Tom's truck and $200 for the projection bulb. I'm scared to see what the rest of the week brings! *sigh*

ADDENDUM: I got a called from Katie's school and thought "Oh great! What now?" Katie has told her teacher 3 times this morning that her left ear hurts. I bet the tube has come out of that ear. So I made an appointment for her with Dr. Hicks right after school. Then the phone rang again....the mechanic. I was braced for the worst. He told me it was exactly what Tom thought it was...clogged PCV valve that blew the seals on the oil pan. $450. That's less than half of what we were expecting! I wanted to do a happy dance! Finding a good mechanic.....PRICELESS!!!

Great weekend for Louisiana!

Louisiana had a great weekend. First LSU beat their orange tigers (Auburn) and then they elected a new REPUBLICAN governor!! Bobby Jindal became the youngest governor in the country Saturday, winning the election by 53%. He ran against Blanco last time and lost. After Katrina, Louisiana realized they messed up by not electing Bobby instead of her. Bobby Jindal is an extremely intelligent (Rhode's scholar) man and I think he will do great things for the state of Louisiana!

Win or Lose, Clemson still stinks!

Q: What do you call 2 millionaires sitting around a TV watching the BCS Championship Bowl game?
A: The Clemson Tigers coaching staff.

Q: What do the Clemson Tigers Coach Tommy Bowden and Billy Graham have in common?
A: They both can make 70,000 people stand up and yell "Jesus Christ ".

Q: How do you keep an Clemson Football Coach out of your yard?
A: Put up goal posts, a first down marker, or an end zone.

Q: What do you call a Clemson Coach with a BCS National Championship Bowl ring?
A: A thief.

Q: Why was Tommy Bowden upset when the Clemson play book was stolen?
A: Because he hadn't finished coloring it.

Q: What's the difference between the Clemson Tigers Coaching Staff and a dollar bill?
A: You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.

Q: What do the Clemson Tigers Coaching Staff and possums have in common?
A: Both play dead at home (and get killed on the road).

Brittanie has made her decision!!

Brittanie has made her final decision on where she wants to go to college. The verdict is........University of South Carolina!!! We are very happy!!!

She received an e-mail from Carson-Newman telling her that she may not have heard yet (as in official notification) but pending her physical, she will be given scholarship offers from several schools. She had her Army eye exam Friday. That was pretty funny. She has 20/80 in one eye and 20/70 in the other. But she still passed Army standards. Guess the Army doesn't care if you are blind. hehehe Tomorrow I will call and make the appointment for her actual physical.

When she gets the official offer of the Army ROTC 4-year scholarship, she will accept the one from USC and become an official member of the

Blame it on Tom!

I blame USC's loss today on Tom! Disaster follows him! We moved to South Carolina....Hugo hit! We moved to Louisiana....Hurricane Andrew. He went to a computer conference in California....BIG earthquake. Goes to Minnesota and the bridge collapses (ok that happened the week before he got there but still). Everytime he goes to a Panther game, we lose. Now USC has only one loss all season and it is to LSU (who was #2 then) and Tom goes to the game and we lose against Vanderbilt! I rest my case!

By the way, Scott....a bad day as a Carolina fan is still better than being a Clemson fan on a good day! hehehe

What is this world coming to?

I have never allowed my girls to have anything to do with the Harry Potter series because of the magic and wizardry. Now I have another reason to not like it....one of the characters is gay. This series has a huge following with children, preteens, and teens. This is just wrong on so many levels....at least for me and my girls it is wrong. What other people chose to do with their kids is their business. But now that this latest development has come to light, I realize that we were right all along in keeping our girls away from this series.

Katie's school had sent home letters urging parents not to allow their kids to have anything to do with Harry Potter and they listed the reasons. I didn't bother reading it because I don't let other people, not even the church/Christian school, influence me to do or not do anything. Tom and I are responsible for the way our girls are raised...not others. So that's why we make those decisions ourselves. But I do agree with Katie's school regarding Harry Potter and here is another reason why.

My best friend, Jenny, has a quote that I really love...."What we tolerate, our children will embrace." Well our family is not tolerating Harry Potter at all...NONE of it.

It's game time again!!

Tom has 4 tickets to the game tomorrow and we found out tonight that his parents and brother also have tickets and they are coming down too! It is going to be a great time in Columbia tomorrow watching our Gamecocks stomp Vandy!

Clemson is playing tomorrow as well. Hey Jim Carey, what do we think about Clemson?

Grandparents Day

Yesterday was Grandparents Day at Katie's school. She was so excited that her grandma and grandpa came down from Spartanburg to be with her. Grandpa had worked almost all night long so he could take off that day of work so he was running all day on only 3 hours of sleep. If I'm not mistaken, I think Grandma only got a couple of hours of sleep herself.

The activities at school were over before 11 and since the South Carolina State Fair is in town, they took her to the fair. She had a BLAST! Grandma told me she was riding the rides with her hands up in the air screaming....but not out of fear. She was having a blast and couldn't wait to get to the next ride. She is 40in but they were able to sneak her on some 42in rides and those were the ones she liked the best. I can see it now that Katie is going to be just like Brittanie in wanting Tom to take her all over the country trying out roller coasters. lol

After the fair, Katie hadn't had enough. She wanted to go to the park. So they took her to Guinyard Park in Cayce. It has no playground equipment but she was able to play in the creek. She was trying to catch minnows and salamanders. She had alot of fun there too.

Then they came back to our house and she started showing off for them. She was running through the house and a few times she ran from her playroom into the living room and jumped sideways onto her Carolina Panthers beanbag chair. She was so happy to see them. She even convinced Grandma to get her in her waterbed with her and was jumping on her. Katie was wide open yesterday.

Last night, we finished the day by asking Grandpa's oldest sister, Aunt Doris, to join us all for dinner at O'Charley's in Lexington. We had a good time. Katie was so cute at dinner. Tom, Grandpa, and I had salads and I was sharing my salad with Katie. That left Grandma and Aunt Doris with nothing to eat while we were eating our salads. The next time the waiter came to check on us, Katie said "Ummm Mister.....they have nothing to eat!" and pointed to Grandma and Aunt Doris. It was precious!! After Katie finished eating her meal, she asked me to move her chair back and she got down off the booster seat and went and sat in Grandpa's lap. She just loves her grandparents.

Katie took it hard when we left O'Charley's. She was worn out from the day so she didn't take them leaving her very well. She cried almost all the way home. Aunt Doris was in the backseat with her trying to console her. She started playing a guessing game with her and that helped her to stop crying. But she was worn slap out last night. It was a great day for her and a great night for all of us.

We really appreciated Tom's parents coming down here during the workweek to attend Grandparents Day with her. It meant alot not only to her but to Tom and I as well!!

She is like Brittanie after all

I have always said Brittanie and Katie are as different as night and day. But they do have one thing in common....their fake smiles for the camera. Brittanie has always done the condescending fake smile for photographers. Katie has actually said "what is wrong with you?" to a photographer. You have to be a GREAT photographer to get a real smile out of them. Evidently it wasn't a great photographer who took school pictures this year. Check out this fake smile:

It is official....I HATE Microsoft!

I got up this morning at 6:30 to start a very long dictation. I couldn't get started because stupid Vista evidently connected to Microsoft last night and decided that my copy of Vista wasn't genuine so it basically held my laptop hostage. I entered the product code from the bottom of my laptop and it told me it was invalid. I bought this laptop 6 months ago brand new from Best Buy and unfortunately it came loaded with Vista and I have never had a problem (other than it is EXTREMELY slow to respond). But now all of a sudden Microsoft has decided that I'm a software pirate. It has an wizard with options to resolve the problem. None of them worked. I actually woke up Tom (I love having my own personal tech support.) and he called Microsoft and yelled at the automated thing, which by the way didn't work. So then he ended up having to speak to a Microsoft employee who interrogated him about where our copy of Vista came from, but when she realized that we didn't steal the copy of Vista (who would want to steal such an awful program???????), she gave us an activation code that let me see the desktop. But in true Microsoft form, I had to reboot my laptop because in the bottom right hand corner it was still saying that my copy of Microsoft Vista wasn't genuine. grrrrrrrr But after rebooting it went away. What's next? I hate Microsoft. If something else happens, I'm switching to Linux!

Another great interview!!

Brittanie was able to move her appointment up from 1pm to 11am this morning. It went GREAT! She loves Carson-Newman and has been in email contact with Major Bryan there for months. Major Bryan invited Tom to sit in on the interview. When it was all said and done, she was told that she can expect an offer from Carson-Newman!!! She did make it under the wire for the October 10th deadline so she should be hearing something within the next month. He also told her that she should have already had her physical by now and for her to contact cadet command to schedule her physical. So I sent them an e-mail (since there is no phone number listed) and requested an appointment for a physical. Looks like we will have scholarship offers to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!!

I'm so proud of Brittanie. She has wanted this for years and once she gets that scholarship, it will be yet another goal that she set for her life accomplished. We are truly blessed to have a daughter like her!!

First impressions are everything

Brittanie and Tom went to Visitation Day at Campbell today and they were not impressed at all. They had to sit through a presentation by an elderly man who droned on and on about the history of the school. Tom nearly fell asleep. They took the tour of the campus and it consisted of walking a little and having the guide point to different buildings and tell you the name of the building.....which was written on the outside of the building so anyone that could read would have known that without the guide. Most dorms have window unit air conditioners. The chapel is lead by a woman. (To each his own but we believe the Bible and I Corinthians 14;34 says "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.") The gym is extremely small. They have no football team. (They will be getting one in 2009 but we all know how great new football teams are right?) Tom wasn't impressed that it was all staff lead. Carson-Newman and USC got their students involved in these types of days so you can hear it direct from a student who goes there. One of the biggest drawbacks for Brittanie was 9 women's dorms and only 5 men's dorms. That tells you there are ALOT more women than men on that campus and unless you are a straight man or a homosexual female, nobody would want to go to a school that is that overpopulated with women. The ROTC Department is impressive but she is going for Psychology as well. Campbell is renowned for their law program, pharmacy program, golf management program, and having a Chik-Fil-A now. She wants a better rounded college.

But she went ahead and interviewed for the scholarship anyway, just to know if they will make her an offer. She told Tom last night and me this morning that she is really leaning towards Carolina. She said that Tom and I had given her the impression that she couldn't get into USC so that's why she wasn't really interested in USC before. I swear kids only half way listen! That's not what I told her. I told her that if her GPA continues to drop (It was 3.6 her freshman year, 3.4 her sophomore year, and 3.2 her Junior year.) that she wasn't going to be able to get into Carolina so she better start turning up the heat on her grades. But anyway, Major Psaltis told her that she missed the October 10th deadline because his boss won't be in until Friday to approve submitting for her offer. But he was pretty confident she would be given an offer for the December 15th deadline. The only problem is that she has 30 days after receiving an offer to commit or your spot will be given to someone else. But that's ok because she wasn't going to go there anyway. It was curiosity that made her even do the interview after being there for Visitation Day.

Now it is on to Carson-Newman. She has already been there for Showcase Saturday and loved it. But homecoming starts tomorrow. It should be interesting to see how different the campus is tomorrow as compared to how it was in February when they went. Major Bryant at Carson-Newman wanted her to be there by tomorrow so she would make that October 10th deadline. So at least she will have an answer pretty soon from her top 2 choices. We are also waiting to see if she got into USC also. She missed early admission by 4 days! grrrr I was trying to get her to do the personal statement for weeks. But she didn't and missed early admission. I hope the Army works that out of her. lol

They made it!

Tom called me at 9pm last night to let me know that they made it to the hotel. This morning I got a message from Brittanie that they were on campus and she sent me a few pictures of her in front of the fountain at Campbell. Campbell requested she be a little more dressy for her interview with them so she had to step it up from USC, who told her a t-shirt and jeans would have been fine. But here is my oldest baby at Campbell University. (Notice the colors she is wearing? Definitely a die hard Panther fan. hehehe)

Break out the paper bags....the Saints lose again!

It wasn't a pretty game and it came down to the last seconds but our beloved Carolina Panthers beat the NO Saints. (That's NO as in NO WAY would I ever root for the Saints. hehehe) Tom and I are somewhat of a house divided when it comes to the Saints because even though I grew up in Louisiana, I have never cared for the Saints. I was a Miami Dolphins fan growing up. But from living near New Orleans and working in downtown New Orleans before the Panthers franchise came to be gave Tom somewhat of a soft spot for the Saints. But make no mistake, he and Brittanie were jumping up and down cheering when the game was over!

By the way, did anyone notice the play where David Carr got hurt? Tom rewound it and we couldn't help but laugh. Not because he got hurt of course but because he saw that HUGE New Orleans Saints player coming at him and he literally turned around to run away. That's when he got nailed. David Carr stinks. Come back Jake!!! We need that Cajun Connection!!

This weekend was MUCH better than last weekend! Now Tom and Brittanie are packing to head to Buies Creek, NC to attend Visitation Day at Campbell tomorrow.

AP Poll has been updated!!!

AP Top 25

1. LSU (65) 6-0 1,625

2. California 5-0 1,538

3. Ohio State 6-0 1,511

4. Boston College 6-0 1,346

5. South Florida 5-0 1,339

6. Oklahoma 5-1 1,221

7. South Carolina 5-1 1,183

8. West Virginia 5-1 1,059

9. Oregon 4-1 1,047

10. USC 4-1 1,024 (HAHAHA)

11. Missouri 5-0 966

12. Virginia Tech 5-1 910

13. Florida 4-2 822

14. Arizona State 6-0 752

15. Cincinnati 6-0 705

16. Hawaii 6-0 634

17. Kentucky 5-1 612

18. Illinois 5-1 595

19. Wisconsin 5-1 551

20. Kansas 5-0 336

21. Florida State 4-1 307

22. Auburn 4-2 248

23. Texas 4-2 136

24. Georgia 4-2 131

25. Tennessee 3-2 90 See something missing?? That's right, Clemson has fallen out of the top 25! Isn't it sweet??

What a great day in college football!!!

I've always preferred pro-football to college but Thursday I watched the Gamecocks beat KenYucky and that just wet my appetite for yesterday. What a great day!! I LOVED watching Virginia Tech beat up on Clemson, especially when they would make touchdowns when it seemed that Clemson was napping on the field. Awesome!! Then we watched the nail biter between LSU and Florida with my Tigers beating the Gators by 4. Matt Flynn, one of the quarterbacks, is great and I loved that he pulled a similar trick play on the Gators that he pulled on the Gamecocks and Florida fell for it. Don't they watch the game tapes?? lol

Any day that Clemson loses is a good day but having LSU beat Florida is icing on the cake!!

Yesterday, Brittanie went to Jewelry Warehouse to get a T-shirt for her friend for his birthday. While in there, she wanted to get a shirt like Jessica's. She found it in garnet, which she preferred. Check out the shirt she bought. In case you can't read it, it says "Real Women Love Football. The rest of yall just stay in the kitchen." I LOVE it!!

I have heard it all now

There is a car dealer that is offering to give students a free car if they get a perfect score on their SAT. Sounds good, huh? There's one problem. You work your butt off to get a perfect score, which is it's own reward in my opinion, but they are going to give you an OLD car! According to Wach Fox 57, the car will be a 2001 Malibu, Impala, because they are economical How in the world would a 6-year-old second hand car be economical? That's when cars give you problems. So they get to sink money into fixing that old car IF they have the money because with that SAT score, you know they are going to college. How many college students have money for car repairs??? This is just stupid, in my opinion!

Congratulations on getting a perfect score on your SAT....here's your old Chevy. Get real!

Profound

Brittanie's interview

Brittanie said her interview went very well. She had visited USC last year and spoken with the Army ROTC guy there. While she liked USC, she wasn't at all impressed with the Army ROTC guy. That guy is now gone and LTC Hale has taken his place. I talked to him on the phone myself to set up this appointment for Brittanie and he was very charismatic and answered all of my questions. He was very professional and very nice.

Brittanie said that is how he is in person as well. She actually talked to him about the guy she talked to before and LTC Hale said "He's gone now but he is a yankee. He can't help that he is like that." LOL

After interviewing Brittanie, he told her that she is exactly the type of candidate that they are looking for and he doesn't think it will be a problem to make her a scholarship offer. Brittanie told me she wasn't nervous at all. She said she is very confident in who she is and what she wants and that is apparent in everyone she talks to. So she was sure that when the ROTC interviewers realize that she is very serious about becoming an Army officer and what an outstanding cadet she would make, they will offer her a scholarship. It seems to have worked at USC.

Thanks for praying.....keep em coming. One down, two to go!!

Oh and speaking of USC, how about our Gamecocks!!!! We showed KenYucky how it is done in the Palmetto state! WOOOO HOOOO!! Top 10 here we come. Look out Clemson, your butt whooping is coming!

It's finally Friday!!

Katie has been sick since Tuesday and last night she was coughing and coughing. I got up and rubbed her chest with the baby version of Vick's VapoRub. She kept coughing. So Tom got up and rubbed real Vick's on her and gave her cough medicine. She still coughed. I thought about getting up and holding her but I thought holding her would make her hot and make her cough more. But Tom got up and rocked her and taught her a trick to suppressing a cough and when he put her back to bed, she was asleep in 15 minutes. He's an incredible father!! All total, she coughed about an hour and a half last night. The days have been really bad because she will run fever and get clingy, which is ok but then I give her Tylenol or Advil to break the fever and she starts bouncing off the walls. Tom saw it last night. She was wide open when he got home last night. Hopefully she will be better by Monday so she can go to school!!!

Brittanie left for her first Army ROTC scholarship interview. She isn't nervous. She said she is prepared for this. I think it isn't as scary because USC isn't her first choice of schools. She definitely dressed like a Carolina fan for this interview. Check it out. It looks like there is a stain on her shirt but there isn't. She looked great!!

Sunday, Brittanie took Katie to the store with her and Aunt Doris had given Katie some quarters that she has been dying to spend. Well my little tomboy picked a gun that shoots foam discs. She went crazy unloading the gun on Tom, reloading, and unloading it again on him. She was having a blast. Discs were hitting him in the face and everywhere. The bigger his reactions were, the more she laughed. It was pretty funny. Here is a picture of the fun.

Question of the day

Does an innocent man with nothing to hide run from TV reporters and cameras?

Watch Fox 57 tonight at 10pm and you be the judge!

Report cards are in......

Brittanie has a 4.0!!!! I'm so proud of her!

She has the day off tomorrow so she is going to interview for the ROTC scholarship at USC in Columbia at 10am tomorrow.

Monday, Tom is taking her to Campbell University (above Raleigh, NC) for Visitation Day and then she will interview with them for the ROTC scholarship at 1:30pm.

Tuesday, she will go to Carson-Newman (Jefferson City, TN) to interview with them for the ROTC scholarship.

I found out that the Army requires that all first round offers be turned in by October 10th. So she will be getting in just under the wire for all three schools but she will make it for first round consideration.

I also finished up her application to USC and Campbell yesterday and submitted them. So she will probably find out if she got into USC and Campbell about the same time she is finding out which, if any, of the 3 schools will make her an offer for the ROTC scholarship.
Please pray!! This is an extremely important time in her life. What happens with these interviews will have a huge impact on her future!

Is this normal?

Katie is always putting things on wrong. It started with her shoes ALWAYS being put on the wrong feet....even flip flops. I would have never thought anyone could put flip flops on the wrong feet but my kid can! She will turn her panties and socks inside out before putting them on. This morning I told her to grab a dress from her closet and bring it to me and I would help her put it on. Well she is in big girl mode these days and wanting to dress herself, which I LOVE, except that this morning she had a polo dress on and the buttons were on her back instead of her chest. I don't get it. Is this normal or is she dyslexic or something????

Monday

Brittanie got her keys back but her debit card wasn't in the ID wallet. Evidently her keys were stolen, the debit card removed and the keys dropped and that's when they were found and turned in. But thieves got fooled because I called and canceled that card immediately so they weren't able to get anything from it.